The Bush administration is making headway with other nations in setting new global standards to reduce dangerous emissions from giant diesel-burning ships that pollute U.S. ports, a senior environmental official said Thursday. An emergency room physician described a "diesel death zone" around major U.S. seaports, with higher cancer rates and other health risks.

The Las Vegas Springs Preserve, which is designed to show Las Vegas' past and provide a glimpse at a sustainable future, opened in June at a cost of $250 million reaped from the sale of federal land around southern Nevada. Designers call it a "playducational" museum, with buttons to activate exhibit stories, a lever to show how a steam engine builds power, faucets to turn to reveal correct answers to recycling questions, touch-screens, joysticks, fossil scanners and a chance to try to fit broken pieces of Indian pottery together.